Movies

Welcome
to my online movie reviews. I am a big fan
of foreign films, as well as the more quirky
American independent films. I think
Quentin's first few films were great as well
as Spike's. I have listed a number of the
best (as far as I am concerned) that I
highly recommend you buy and keep in your
own personal stash.

Swedish/English

A funny, raunchy film by Dusan Makavejev--a
paean to the liberating power of dirt, as in
both grime and smut. The setting is
squeaky-clean Sweden, where an American
woman (Susan Anspach) is married to a stuffy
businessman (Erland Josephson) falls in with
a colony of Yugoslavian immigrants. It's a
one-joke movie, without the depth or formal
inventiveness of Makavejev's WR:
Mysteries of the Organism, but the joke
is good and well sustained (1981).

Italian/English subtitles

The superficial story is entertaining
enough, but the deeper studies of human
behavior make this (and most of Wertmuller's
films) worthy of repeated and in-depth
study. The knock-down, drag-out fight in the
middle of the movie (which, conveniently
enough, is the big turning point) is so
completely self-consciously hilarious that I
was rolling in the aisles in fits of
laughter. As the two soon-to-be lovers
grapple with each other along the length and
breadth of the island they are spewing out
an incredibly sensitive combination of
heartfelt emotion and mindless class
rhetoric.

Giancarlo Giannini is a fantastic actor
possessed of one of cinema's all-time most
expressive faces. Wertmuller knows how to
exploit his talents to their fullest.
Another Top Ten Fave.

If you're an insomniac ex-marine with
chronic headaches, what would you do for a
living? Why, drive a taxi, of course. Travis
Bickle (Robert DeNiro) spends 12 hours a
day, 6-7 days a week driving a cab through
the seediest neighborhoods of New York.
Something about Travis seems edgy, a little
left of center, but his actions don't reveal
this initially. He falls for a beautiful
woman, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works
for Senator Palantine's (Leonard Harris)
presidential campaign. After lurking around
her office, Travis summons the nerve to ask
her to coffee; she accepts. He then asks her
to a movie; who would've thought his choice
would be a XXX rated flick? She summarily
dumps him. Here is where Travis begins his
downward slide, becoming the delusional,
social misfit that we suspect him to be.
Every scene provides more fodder for his
impending breakdown. His confession to a
fellow cabbie of his desire to do something
really bad is a definite indicator. And his
purchase of 5 bazillion handguns from a 'travelling
salesman' solidifies the diagnosis. He
finally does 'lose it', but not as you'd
imagine, hence the interesting twist. Jodie
Foster appears much later in the film as
Iris, the child prostitute that Travis so
desperately wants to rescue.

Even by today's standards, Taxi Driver
has it's share of language, explicit
content, and violence, especially the last
scene where the director makes sure to
linger over the details, both visually and
audibly. DeNiro is known for really getting
into the parts he plays. This is no
exception; his performance is stellar. What
really frightens me about this movie is that
I've known this type of guy. Everyone has
worked with someone like this, and you never
know what's gonna make them snap. Hard,
edgy...this movie is the balls.

Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) was a
successful writer in Hollywood with a wife,
a son, a lucrative job, and plenty of money.
Unfortunately, you never get the chance to
see this side of him in Leaving Las
Vegas. In the first scene, Ben enters
the trendy restaurant where his colleagues
are having dinner. He's blitzed, but
everyone seems to be able to 'ignore' his
behavior in a controlled but
"embarrassed-for-you" way. Ben
finally pulls his friend Peter (Richard
Lewis) away from the table to beg him for
one more loan, which he promises to repay
the next day- one of the most uncomfortable
scenes I've ever seen in a film. It's
painful to witness the unravelling of
someone's life, but that's what this film is
all about. Once Ben loses his job as a
writer, his goal is to move to Las Vegas and
drink himself to death (although this isn't
revealed right away). He has nothing to lose
because he's already lost it all- job, wife,
child, and dignity. Once in Vegas, he
(almost) runs into Sera (Elisabeth Shue)
with his car. She's a hooker, but that
doesn't matter to Ben. They discover their
need for one another and begin a
relationship based on acceptance of each
other "as is". Their relationship
is fascinating, and there are a few funny
moments as they take their short but
poignant journey together.

This movie is not for everybody but it's
one of the best, most honest films I have
ever seen. It's raw, brutal, wrenching, and
offers no apologies or easy way out. There's
nothing gratuitous here - a welcome change
of pace. The sex is real. The drinking and
its consequences are real. And the
relationship between Ben and Sera is pure -
not in a chaste sense, but in an honest
sense. In these days of
"intervention" - where everyone
feels it's their duty to set straight the
errant neighbor, friend, or relative - it's
refreshing to see two people agree to accept
each other just as they are. Not that this
isn't a tough road; Sera fights to keep from
saving Ben from himself, and Ben falls prey
to jealousy when Sera's turning tricks. But
in the end, she's with him and he's with
her. I found this movie disturbing and very
painful to watch, but it features a
thoughtful ending to a well-done movie. Not
your typical effluence from H-wood.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this tawdry
tale based on the autobiography of hipster
Jim Carroll that follows his descent from
promising high school basketball player to
male-hustling junkie. The gay subplots are
tinged with homophobia including Bruno
Kirby's role as the teen's sweaty-palmed,
closeted basketball coach and a truly
despicable tea room sex scene that offers
mid-America the images to confirm their
notion that homosexuality is horrific!

I had met Jim Carroll a number of times
when he came to Boston in the very early
80's. He used to hang around a club called
Spit on Lansdowne Street and I went to hear
him read his poetry whenever I was in NYC.
There was this great piece he did about a
hump-backed chick he picked up at a club,
and when he got to her place, he shot up,
and a scene ensued. It was the most amazing
reading I had ever heard. The movie is okay,
but I am SUCH a big fan of the writer.

Chinese/English subtitles

Gong Li is sent to feudal nobleman's
palatial home to become his newest wife. The
relationships between her and her
predecessors--all of whom live on the
premises--and the interaction among the
women, the servants, and their master are
brilliantly played out. An extraordinary
view of sex, loyalty, intrigue, and female
bonding. Deliberately paced, but worth
watching for the changes in emotion that
register on actress Gong Li's face alone.
Screenplay by Ni Zhen, from a novel by Su
Tong.

Japanese/English subtitles

The winter of Kurosawa's life created
this movie of eight dreams. These dreams
transport us through many emotions by
portraying tragedy, love, aloneness and
beauty and end with a dream that appears to
portray Kurosawa's vision of heaven. It is
an extremely beautiful and well crafted film
that invites revisiting from time to time
because the themes it contains are universal
and timeless to the viewer; a sure keeper in
my video collection. It is a true work of
art.

Untamed, kinky, bizzare, sexy...With it's
warped storyline and humor, it offers a
viewing experience unlike no other. Which is
what makes it such a hard movie to review.
Depending on what kind of person you are,
you will get something out of this movie
that maybe your best friend didn't. (And who
said your friends were a reflection of
yourself?) Anyway, the story revolves around
a married couple and the one night their car
happens to break down near an old mansion.
They, of course, go into the mansion to try
and use their phone, but a lot more than
that unfolds... With its themes of sexual
liberation and Rock n' Roll, The Rocky
Horror Picture Show is an unforgettable (but
not perfect) viewing experience.

If you've never managed to experience
this movie at an art house, you've missed a
significant part of its charm. Live actors
and viewers alike dressed as the actors in
the movie. The actors ended up on stage in
front of the movie acting it out live, while
viewers brought toast and water guns and
raincoats to interact with the movie, the
actors, et al... If there's ever a revival
near you, by all means, baby...camp out for
tickets.